HISTORYLINK.ORG
July 1, 2005

ON AMERICAN SOIL
featured book for July 2005

On the evening of August 14, 1944, a riot occurred at Seattle’s Fort Lawton. Black troops from segregated units beat up Italian Prisoners Of War along with the four American officers guarding them. Later that night, one of the Italians was lynched – hanged from a wire at the foot of Magnolia Bluff. The story told at the time and passed into history – until now – was that the American black soldiers resented the Italian Prisoners of War for their seemingly greater privileges and amenities. The incident had international repercussions, and the Army charged forty-three black soldiers with rioting and three with murder (despite no evidence linking these men to the hanging). At the time all records of the case, including the Army’s internal investigation, were classified. Jack Hamann’s riveting book, based on recently declassified documents, questions every supposed fact in the case. To what extent were white Military Police involved in the riot? Who resented the Italians more, white MPs or black soldiers? Why was every scrap of evidence, every fingerprint and footprint, destroyed? Were the officers in command colossally incompetent, or did they have something to hide (or both)? Why did the Army investigator hear, to his unbelieving ears, lie after lie from those in command? This book reads like a novel and turns the history of this telling episode on its head.

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